Mystery booms are still heard around Genesee, New York. This article cites several incidents around the country and focuses on this particular area.

It is a phenomena that has sparked curiosity throughout the country for several years now.

The booms, however, have grown more frequent.

Dr. Mark Castner, director of Braun-Ruddick Seismograph Station at Canisius College, told WIVB-TV in Buffalo that booms can be associated with an earthquake, quarry blasts, building implosions or sonic booms.

Seismographic records reported no unusual activity, however, and officials at Niagara Falls Air Reserve have had no aircraft flying in the area during the times of the reported booms.

The witnesses sometimes report that the dogs bark and the houses shake. I currently experience booms from a military testing area over 7 miles away. On some days, it DOES upset the dog. But making the house move is a very different thing. To cause movement, if indeed it DID do that (some people perceive movement based on the sound) in the house would suggest there is movement on the ground – an explosion, a quarry blast or an earthquake will do this.

I’ve researched strange sounds quite a bit. Many events are left unexplained or provisionally explained because not enough information has been recorded from the event to determine what it was, so we are left ruling out what we can. In many cases, since event booms have been caused by military aircraft or meteors creating sonic booms, explosives or small earthquakes. Therefore, there could be various explanation for sounds that are similar, but they are not correlated. In the Finger Lakes area of New York, the term Seneca guns or lake guns originated as early explorers noticed booming noises, like canon fire, near the lakes. Also known as mistpouffers, similar phenomena are reported around the world and their explanation remains mysterious. Fascinating.

There is some evidence to suggest that very shallow earthquakes or shallow changes in the subsurface, may sometimes cause audible noises but NOT register on seismographs. Because each area of bedrock is a little different, and topography and even weather conditions may affect sound propagation, this may be a possible explanation. Also, it’s interesting to note that this area of New York was heavily glaciated in the past. The ground is still undergoing mild glacial isostatic adjustment which may cause activation of small, unmapped faults and thus account for the lake guns and booming noise phenomena.

Last January, there was such a spate of mystery booms.

The phenomena best known, but still rather uncertainly explained, is that of mystery booms. [William] Corliss [Earthquakes, Tides, Unidentified Sounds and Other Related Phenomena, a Sourcebook Project catalog (1983)] notes that there are SO many reports of unexplained sounds of this nature that their reality is not doubted. A review of a particular type of account of the phenomena, called brontides, has been published in the journal Science. (Gold and Soter. 1979. Brontides: Natural Explosive Noises. Science 204:4391. pp. 371-375.)

Brontides are observed with some regularity at certain places on earth. Frequently, they can be linked to seismic events that are too small to feel, perhaps even too small to be noticed or measured (in consideration of today’s background vibrations from urban activity). Ground-to-air acoustic transmission from shallow earthquakes is a possibility for many of the booming events. It seems likely that seismic activity is not the sole cause around the world, however.